Various devices and methods have been developed to detect developing or actual fire conditions. These include smoke detectors, flame detectors and thermal detectors. In these detectors, advantage is taken of being able to sense one or more parameters associated with the presence of combustion from a fire condition, namely, air born particulate matter, optical characteristics of flames, or heat from a fire.
Despite the fact that the above identified types of detectors are useful for their intended purposes, they at times suffer from generating false alarms. For example, conventional fire detectors are known to generate false alarms in areas such as residential or commercial kitchens, smoking rooms, chicken coops. In addition, they may not be suitable for use in chemical laboratories, or, production areas.
In connection with the kitchen problem, the presence of hot steam and dense vapor makes fire detection in residential and commercial kitchens a particularly difficult task for conventional fire detectors. Detecting the white and, in some cases, dense water vapor emitted by ovens and pans presents an on-going challenge for both ion-type and optical measurement techniques, where the goal is to reliably detect fire aerosols. It is therefore preferable, at times, to use thermal detectors in such situations. However, thermal detectors also have their limits when used in a kitchen environment, as the presence of hot steam can cause temperature rises of more than 50 C.
There is thus a continuing need for improvements in connection with fire detection. It would be desirable to be able to base fire determinations on additional, alternate fire related parameters. Alternate types of determinations could be used alone or in combination with smoke, heat or flame based determinations of the presence of a fire.